Community fundraising groups need structure to keep going

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

Introduction

A group of supporters in a nearby town offers to fundraise for you. They hold a coffee morning, raise a few hundred, and everyone is pleased. Eighteen months later they have quietly stopped, and nobody at the charity noticed when.

Community groups are among the most durable fundraising assets a small charity can have, and they fade for entirely avoidable reasons: no contact, no materials, no recognition, and no sense that the money went anywhere in particular. What they need is not management but support.

1. Community fundraising groups reach people you never will

Understand what they actually provide.

They have local credibility, personal networks, and a presence in places your organisation has no reach into. Money is part of it; the introduction of your cause into a whole town, through people its residents already trust, is frequently worth considerably more than the sums raised.

2. Give them a named contact

The single strongest predictor of whether a group survives.

One person at the charity they can reach, who knows their names and what they are planning. Groups that deal with a general enquiry address drift away because there is nobody noticing whether they are still going.

3. Supply the materials they cannot make

Volunteers should not be designing leaflets.

Posters with space for local details, collection tins, banners, photographs they may use, and a short explanation of where the money goes. Providing these costs very little and removes the main practical obstacle, which is that willing people do not know how to describe your work.

4. Tell them what the money achieved

The most common reason groups lose energy.

They raised four hundred pounds and never learned what it did. A specific answer, even a small one, gives the next event a purpose and gives them something to tell the people they are asking.

5. Set the boundaries clearly and early

This protects everyone, including them.

How money is collected, counted and passed on, what may be said about the charity, use of the name and logo, and insurance for events. Check what your jurisdiction requires of people fundraising in a charity's name, because the responsibility can rest with you.

6. Visit occasionally

Presence sustains groups more than communication does.

Somebody from the organisation attending an event, even briefly, signals that this matters. For a group in another town who never sees anyone from the charity, an annual visit changes the relationship entirely.

7. Let them do it their way

Over-management is the fastest way to lose volunteers.

They know their community, what will sell locally, and who to ask. Provide the boundaries and the materials, then let them run their events without approving every detail.

8. Recognise them publicly and personally

Both forms matter and are cheap.

Named thanks in your newsletter and on your channels, a letter from a trustee, an invitation to something. Groups sustain themselves on feeling part of the organisation rather than adjacent to it.

9. Plan for the leader leaving

Every group depends on one or two people.

When the organiser steps back, most groups stop. Knowing several members, encouraging shared roles, and being ready to help recruit a successor is what turns a group into something that lasts beyond an individual.

Keep a simple record of each group, its members, its events and what it has raised. Charities frequently discover they had three active groups and no list of who was in them once the one member of staff who knew moved on.

Conclusion

Support community groups rather than merely accepting their money, because they reach networks your organisation cannot.

Give each group one named contact who knows them, supply the materials volunteers cannot produce themselves, tell them specifically what their money achieved, set clear boundaries on collecting money and using your name in line with local rules, visit occasionally because presence sustains them, let them run events their own way, recognise them publicly and personally, and plan for the day the organiser steps back.